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Inscription Content

Signed, titled, dated and inscribed in pencil: 'AP'.

Curator's comments

An edition of 35Artist's statement sent by e-mail 17 July 2014 to Jenny Ramkalawon:

This print comes from my 'found skull' series which came about post 2001 after we moved from the NSW Illawarra coastal town of Stanwell Tops to the more rural inland setting of Mittagong in the Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia. Our new home on the doorstep of a large field-disused dairy revealed a large cache of scattered skulls and animal bones. The Swamp Wallaby skull with attached fragments of skin was one of these found bones.Executed after works such 'Big Night Skull' (2006) another much larger linocut from the same series, this work is a smaller more intimate reflection on similar ideas and thoughts.The night sky being clear and visible on moving inland was a new source of inspiration. This aspect was another ingredient sometimes incorporated in this series. The SCP ( South Celestial Pole) of the title is a southern hemisphere navigational reference point utilizing the intersecting lines of the Southern Cross and the Southern Pointers. I've used it as a way of pegging the object to its place geographically. The Southern Cross has in more recent times been appropriated by the 'white pride' nationalist groups from tattoos to car bumper stickers. It's use, meaning and intent in Australian iconography is now currently somewhat confused. The work is cut in a style which is probably best described as 'stipple engraving' using a wood engraver's tools. The lino block was initially sanded back to a smooth finish with the work cut very much 'to the block' working from the skull itself as a model with little planning, proofing dozens of times to check progress of work and image. The printing was carried out on my etching press on thin Japanese gampi tissue papers allowing for the shallow stipple cutting to be printed clean and clear with no 'filling' of the cut areas.

Another copy of this work is in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW, Australia Accession number 349.2009 http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/349.2009/ It was also exhibited as a finalist work in the 2009 Silk Cut Award for linocut prints Exhibition dates: 5-20 Sept. 2009, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Victoria, Australia